Every week we present the latest startup, tech and innovation news from around the world to keep you updated on the latest happenings. Let’s dive into this week"e;s top 8 stories. >>
Photo credit: Cointelegraph
# 1 McDonalds Begins Accepting Bitcoin in the Swiss City of Lugano
McDonalds now accepts Bitcoin as a payment method in the city of Lugano in Switzerland as part of a crypto-friendly experiment. The city of Lugano has claimed stake as the European cryptocurrency capital in the last year and has been upping the infrastructure to support this type of payment throughout the entire city.
In March 2022, the city announced it would accept Bitcoin, Tether & the LVGA token as legal tender extending the project to allow citizens to pay their taxes, parking tickets, public services and tuition fees for students using crypto. Over 200 other stores and restaurants in the city will start accepting these digital payments soon as well.
Photo credit: Homa
#2 Homa Raises 00M For its Data-Driven Mobile Gaming Tools
Homa raises $100M in funding to simplify and optimize game development. The startups"e; technologies allow video games to be developed in a matter of weeks when before they needed months of development. With their new funding, Homa plans on buying other gaming businesses to diversify the type of games they can develop.
The French startup was named in our “Top 100 Next Unicorns” – a list that recognizes the top 100 scale-ups in Europe that have the potential to reach unicorn status. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one to see how soon it reaches that holy grail status.
Photo credit: Cryptonaute
#3 Google Partners With Coinbase to Accept Crypto Payments
Google partners with Coinbase to start accepting crypto payments for cloud services taking effect early next year - announced at Google’s Cloud Next conference on October 11th.
First to be rolled out to select customers involved in the Web3 industry, it will facilitate payments with 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ether and Litecoin.
Photo credit: Meta
#4 Meta and Microsoft Partner to Bring Teams, Office, Windows, and Xbox to VR
Meta and Microsoft join forces to bring the metaverse to its biggest services — Teams, Office, Windows and Xbox Cloud Gaming — all to Meta’s Quest VR headsets. Taking the future of work to the next level for remote work and meetings, the integration of these apps will allow colleagues to feel like they"e;re in the same room for a Teams meeting or collaborate on a document in Office “right next” to each other.
This partnership also creates advances for the gaming industry. With Xbox Cloud Gaming, owners of Quest VR headsets will now have more options when it comes to available games in the metaverse.
Photo credit: chainarong06
#5 Cybersecurity Startup Tehtris Raises €44M in Funding, a Record Amount in France
Tehtris raises €44M – one of the largest amounts of funding raised in France. The startup is a leader against cyber espionage and cyber sabotage in France and Europe, but now has its eyes on the American and Asian markets. Their mission$1 To help create cyber peace in the world. For a sector that has been historically underfinanced, this is a huge step forward for the cybersecurity industry.
This VivaTech Alumni participated in both VivaTech 2021 and 2022. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for them – and for the future of cybersecurity.
Photo credit:
#6 IPhone 14 Crash Detection Triggers 911 Calls from Roller Coasters
The new crash detection feature on the iPhone 14 and Apple watches have been automatically calling emergency services from the pockets of people riding roller coasters in the US, mistaking the bumps and jerks of the rides as car crashes. While iPhone owners are enjoying the trop thrills, they don’t have time to deactivate, or notice, the 10 second warning countdown on their phones before the phone calls 911 and shares the user"e;s location details.
While Apple has already shared how the feature has saved lives, for example an iPhone notified emergency services of a crash in Nebraska where no witnesses could have called for help, the tech giant agrees that there is still some optimization to do with the service. But hey, we’re all guilty of a butt dial…
Photo credit: Too Good To Go
#7 Too Good to Go Launches in California
Too Good To Go, a Danish startup that connects users with restaurants and stores offering unsold food, has officially launched in California. Users can browse what’s available in their area and reserve a Surprise Bag on the app, then pick up the goods at the store or restaurant – all for 1/3 of the original retail price.
The startup participated in VivaTech in 2017 and 2018 to showcase their app, which has now helped over 64 million users buy food at affordable prices and fight food waste worldwide. We"e;re eager to see food waste be conquered in the Gold State and further.
Photo credit: Tumisu
#8 Netflix to Launch €6/month Ad-Supported Plan
Netflix is set to launch its new ad-supported subscription tier, “Basic with Ads,” in nine countries this November, from €5.99 per month. These 15- to 30-second spots will be broadcast before and during programs, but won’t exceed 4 to 5 minutes per hour.
This long-awaited announcement from the streaming giant comes a few months earlier than the previous report stating a launch in 2023 and also beat Disney’s launch of a similar ad-supported plan, which is set for the end of this year. The streaming wars continue.
That’s it for this week. We’ll see you in a week for the next round up!
If you don’t want to miss the top news stories of the day, give us a follow on Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin.